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Stefano Domenicali: ?σΤιΌ?τIf we want to keep fighting, it is important that we try to improve the car. There are some things that we can bring for the next couple of races, and we need to try to improve the qualifying.?σΤιΌ?Ψ

Monisha Kaltenborn: ?σΤιΌ?τGiving up was never an option, because we wanted to make progress with the current car, in order to improve in the constructors?σΤιΌΤδσ championship. In addition the insight we are getting now will help with the development of the new car.?σΤιΌ?Ψ

?σΤιΌ?τI feel I’m showing not just the team, but everyone on the whole, I deserve a seat for next year. Everyone gets judged, so you have to prove yourself, which is hard for rookies because there’s so little testing, which means it’s going to take part of the season to get up to speed.?σΤιΌ?Ψ
Caterham: We need luck to beat Marussia (Racer)

?σΤιΌ?τThe first time I tested the car, Mark drove in the morning and I drove in the afternoon,” he said. “I shat myself for the first couple of laps and I thought, alright, that’s for real men, not for me. Then I got used to it and obviously wanted to do more.?σΤιΌ?Ψ
Cars and girls: Remembering Maria de Villota (The Economist)

?σΤιΌ?τThe FIA, the sport’s governing body, has also set up the Women & Motor Sport Commission, to encourage more female participation. Yet, the paddock retains the feel of a men’s club, even down to the short-skirted “grid girls”, employed to hang around the start line prettying things up.?σΤιΌ?Ψ
Formula 1 chargers have arrived (Times of India)

?σΤιΌ?τF1 cargo involves a high level of coordination with multiple agencies on a very time-bound deadline. More than the volume, it is the time factor that is key in making the logistics support successful. Post this race, the entire equipment will have to be shifted to the next race, and hence it is extremely time critical.?σΤιΌ?Ψ

Comment of the day

Fisichella did pretty well at Montreal back in the day. 1998 and 1999 he finished 2nd and 2000 he finished 3rd by perfectly timing the switch to wets. All of this was done in the Benetton Playlife, which was a pretty average car. He came 5th in his crummy 2002 Jordan and 4th in his Sauber in 2004. But when he raced there with Renault in 2005-07, he was nowhere! I think he came 4th in one of those years, but no higher.@roodda

78 comments on Domenicali expects tight fight for runners-up spot

A shame to listen members of an F1 team (Catherham) talking all about “pure luck” and nothing has really improved for them in all these years. They both, alongside Marussia haven’t scored a single point. F1 is tough, but I think it’s not all down to money when results matter. I don’t know what’s going on with Catherham. I Hope a better 2014 for these 2 teams.

I needed to jog my memory, so I googled some images and guess what, the first hit was from this very site (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gepa_full_6115_gepa-3010084412.jpg). I found it amusing looking at the drivers with the knowledge of what was to come. Button in his Honda T-shirt, Renault’s Alonso looking rather unhappy as the sole representative of the ING squad, Webber looking pleased at the prospect of becoming the “elder statesman” at Red Bull etc.

This picture has reminded me that things really do change in F1, after what seems like 3 or 4 years of the same old same old. There are 19 drivers in that picture, of which 10 have since left and 7 have moved teams, leaving only Mark Webber to be still in F1 and driving for the same team (and not for very much longer…)!

Caterham want a lucky break to bear Marussia. Max Chilton wants a drive for next year. So all Caterham have to do is sign Chilton up so that he can give a position to one of the Caterhams at the last moment, enabling them to pass Marussia in the Constructors’ Championship.

To be fair, he doesn’t work in Enstone, he works in the “field”. Having just left Japan and getting ready to go to India I’d assume he’s a little busy, so they were probably excited to see him. Was Kimi there in his office working away?

I disagree with Chilton, I don’t think he deserves a seat for next year. Yes he’s been consistent by finishing every race, but he hasn’t shown that he’s got the raw speed, as he’s been consistently 0.8-0.3 tenths slower than Jules, sometimes more!

I don’t know how much money he (his father) brings to the team, but I suspect it’s quite a lot considering Marussia chose him over Timo Glock. And obviously that will go in his favour, but on a talent based analysis, I don’t think he’s done enough to earn that seat.

That’s no knock against him as a person, I think he seems like a really nice guy. And I know it’s tough as a rookie at the back of the grid but there haven’t been any huge outstanding performances so far (except maybe Suzuka qualy).

Funny you say that…I made a post recently here about my 4 1/2 year old nephew who has become hooked on F1 ….(my fault) and actually corrected me when I said there were only three british drivers on the grid…he replied “what about max chilton”…

I’ve heard it said that it’s a Β£10 million sponsorship from Aon that comes with Chilton.

Maybe we can surmise that we mere mortals, given the right training and preparation, could do as well as Chilton, after 10+ years of perseverance in Motorsport (For anyone with a knowledge of simracing, I can back my claim up with a -65 GPLrank and -350 odd monster rank ;D).

Apart from that, we Brits generally do have a sense of sporting fair play, and that sense of fair play tells us that Calado and even Bird deserve the chance first. If Chilton dominated GP2 this year, then we would say give him a shot.

I’ve always wondered why Fisichella had such a poor stint at Renault. He had such a knack for dragging poor cars well into the points positions as well as podiums on challenging circuits such as Montreal and Spa earlier on in his career. His speed just seemed to vanish altogether and only really came back at Spa 2009.

Well you would expect that Briatore and Alonso would team up very well but remember that Fisi did won his first race for Renault after Alonso had a poor qualifying, and in 2006 Fisi won from pole in Malaysia.

Maybe he just didn’t gel with that Renault. Or maybe he didn’t gel with being in a team with Alonso- Massa might have it bad now, but Fisichella had Briatore as a boss. I’m sure he’s been quoted saying about later drivers that they only existed because of the two-car rule, so you can make your own conclusions about how much Alonso’s team mates were regarded.

To be honest, if I was Flavio (oh if only!), I would actually do exactly the same thing. Looking at Alonso’s karting record, it’s not surprising that he can now legitimately claim to be the best driver in the world after Schumacher’s retirement, a crown that may be inherited by Vettel once Alonso retires.

Entirely legitimate, as evidenced up by his having won exactly 0 world championships in the 7 seasons since Schumacher first retired. I expect Vettel can’t wait ’till Alonso retires so he can finally stop living in his shadow and can feel like he is number 1.

IMO there are many, many F1 drivers who rely on the confidence of their surroundings, and a certain team dynamic, to really perform at the highest level. Confidence, support and momentum is so important for these guys to extract the last few tenths, or hundredths of a second that make the difference between good and great.

For me the classic example is Frentzen, who simply didn’t perform at Williams in 97 & 98, most likely due to the team dynamic and the pressure and performance of Villeneuve. The very next year at Jordan he was outstanding, with two wins and even challenging for the championship until the last few rounds. Confidence is an amazing thing, particularly in a sport like F1.

Fisichella is a good examples, Grosjean is another. IMO Grosjean started very impressively last year, then made a few mistakes and increasingly found himself under pressure from his team, the media and even the other drivers. His performances dropped. Now Raikkonen is leaving and the team dynamic in particular has shifted back in his favour. He clearly has the confidence and the environment he needs to perform and is doing so.

Is confidence all you need then to succeed in F1 then? Maybe in the short term it helps a lot yes… but the truly great drivers have the confidence no matter what. They have the will to win and to drive their team towards them and their needs.

Look at Alonso, Raikkonen, Vettel. These guys aren’t simply more talented, or ‘faster’ than the other guys. They have an incredible level of self belief, confidence and the will to win that transcends their environment or their team. They don’t need external factors in their favour to perform. That is why they are the champions they are.

I definitely agree with this, in such a sport as F1, where it comes down to the fractions of a second in every aspect, this can totally change a driver, as exemplified by Grosjean’s yo-yo dip in form to now looking like the only challenger to the Red Bulls.

To add Hamilton to this mix, he never looked stronger than when he had the momentum rolling in his favour in 2007 – to put Alonso on the ropes really takes something. Since then, and from achieving his goal in 2008, he has looked less like the legend he always aspired to be. In this case, too much self-confidence has led to him taking his eye off the ball – it appears to slowly be coming back though in the middle of this year. If the car is great in 2014, it could be Lewis’ time once again…

I do feel sorry for Frentzen, pretty much neck-and-neck with Schumacher during their junior careers then at the 2002 French GP Schumacher, married to HHF’s ex girlfriend, wins his 5th World Championship while Frentzen, with just a couple wins to his name, has to deliberately fail to qualify his Arrows while the team tries to stave off bankruptcy.

It’s interesting that the people who had pushed the most now have the luxury of being able to relax more such is their lead, unlike Ferrari who are in the thick of the fight. Everything seems to be going Red Bull’s way right now.

I don’t know what makes you think that Red Bull team had pushed more than the other teams during this year apart from that arrogant statement made by Sebastian Vettel, If Red Bull & Vettel are world champions that means that they have done a better job than the others but that doesn’t mean that they have pushed more or that the others are sleeping in their factories, quality over quantity

Everything seems to be going Red Bullβs way right now.

I don’t think so, with Peter Prodromo moving to Mclaren and Mark Webber replaced with Ricciardo and the power units will have the edge over aerodynamics in the next year’s cars, i know that anything can happen but all these variables are not playing in favor of Red Bull

Another secret Pirelli test? Why wouldn’t they just be open about these: why you’d need to keep it secret beggars belief. I do wish the teams had agreed officially that they were allowed, should they chose, to undertake an official tyre test with a 2011 car on a non-championship circuit or after a Grand Prix has been staged, so we could avoid the debacles that have enraged this season.

@prisoner-monkeys they aren’t and I understand that. All it leads to though is the other teams crying the jealous child – “if they have one I want one too”. So they would have been much better to organise a meeting with all the teams and the FIA and agree to terms that allow all the teams to test should they choose, with no outward performance benefit from doing so, so that those who cannot afford the financial penalty aren’t losing out too much.

The young drivers test was made into a Pirelli tire test to cover off what you are complaining about. There is nothing to suggest that the tweeted picture means a secret tire test with Williams. Also, when you do your rant about Pirelli hope you are including a rant about FOM and it’s desire for gadgety tires and extremely minimal testing that forced Pirelli’s hand to begin with.

I’m very glad that Sauber managed to turn around their fortunes, yes having a bad car shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but the fact that they managed to correct it and make it faster than the Mclaren with a fraction of their resources, means they have very talented people back in Switzerland.

A lot of equipment and materials, such as fuel, tyres, cars and communications equipment, need to be transported, said RS Subramanian, country manager, India, DHL Express. “Each has to be packed differently. On top of that, each team ships its cars differentlyβsome we roll right onto the plane, others are shipped in parts. And all this has to happen fast.”

This seems very hard to believe! The teams leave the cars completely assembled and then a cargo company is allowed to roll them around?

I know what you mean but they are only cars at the end of the day, not pieces of glass, plus they will packed in such a way and protected against damage. And I think by rolled he means on a special trolley.

Plus don’t forget they have been doing this a long time now so all have their own processes that clearly work. The cars probably suffer more on track than any shipping damage could inflict!

Does seem hard to believe, but I would be surprised if the wings are on the cars that are rolled on. Might even have narrower ‘dummy’ tires on it too. And rolling it on means they don’t need it to be on or in something that then has to be hoisted and positioned with a machine.

He must have developed fast in 2006 then, when his focus was not on dominating F3 anymore (allowing di Resta an eternal excuse), and early 2007 – by Indianapolis he was right there on pace at the youngest age we’ve seen, just under 20. He himself said this was close to the limit.

I would love to see Lotus beating Ferrari and Mercedes to the second spot in the constructors.. the reasons I could think of are ..well..surmised below>>

1. They are struggling with the budget, a second in constructors would provide more money and secure their future. Ferrari already gets more than other teams and Mercedes is ..well.. Mercede$$ .

2. The team has overcome it’s past black marks (The Schumacher-Benetton era of controversies, The Singapore crashgate etc.) and although their car is now black, their activities are more in line now.. credit goes to Eric Boullier for this I think.

3. They are the only team showing full throttled competitiveness.. next only to red bull.. with their developments and improving the car.. even though the season is about to end , their star driver is leaving them due to money problems and the uncertainties of 2014 are staring them as they are the only front running team who is not going to have a better experienced driver next year.. unless Massa joins them.